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Kieran Lee reckons Wanderers will have to perk up if they want to get to Wembley in the Papa John’s Trophy.
Ian Evatt’s men crept through to the third round with a virtually full-strength side last night, beating a much-changed Fleetwood.
Just 1,733 turned out to watch the game, although it was still above the stadium’s lowest gate of 1,540, set in the same competition against Everton’s Under-23s in August 2016.
And though the fans are yet to be enchanted by the Papa John’s, Lee reckons the players have to find some inspiration if they want to get to the final.
“I haven’t played it for a while – but the motivation is that Wembley trip at the end of it,” he told The Bolton News.
“The start of the competition is good to get some players who maybe haven’t been playing some game time but now it is knockout we just want to get through and get as far as we can.
“We spoke about it after the game. We know we didn’t play well but if we want to get to the final we need to find the motivation.
“I don’t know why it happened. But the opportunity to get to Wembley and play in a final is something you don’t often get to do, so we want it.”
Wanderers controlled the game for an hour but failed to score a second goal, which would surely have killed off an energetic young Fleetwood side.
As a result, the Whites were pinned back in the latter stages, and Lee paid due respect to the opposition, who came close to pushing the tie into a penalty shootout.
“The most important thing was the results and that was the main thing, performance wise we’re not that happy, to be honest,” he said.
“I think you could see tired legs out there but I don’t really know what you put it down to. They played well, had a lot of younger lads out there.”
On his goal, Lee also acknowledged some excellent work in the build up from striker Eoin Doyle.
“Someone played Doyler through and he’s a clever player, saw me running through on my own, one-on-one with the keeper, and it was nice to slot it in,” he said.
Ian Evatt felt there was a tactical element to Wanderers’ struggles, having started with a back three.
“We need some more work on that 3-4-3, really, we can go back to the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 at any point, we have that fluidity with who we have available at the moment,” he said.
“When their wide forwards stayed wide we had a problem with how quickly we release our wingbacks to their full-backs, and their full-backs became unopposed, really, and were getting out too easily. We weren’t moving across very quickly but that is because we haven’t had a lot of chance to work on it.
“We’ll have that opportunity Saturday, Sunday, Monday to really drill down on that formation and then have a look at the game next Tuesday and see which way we go.”
Though Evatt named a stronger side than was expected from the start, he was able to bring on youth teamers Arran Pettifer, Mitch Henry and Matthew Tweedley in the second half for some match experience.
“It has been fantastic for them, to get them out on the pitch,” said the Bolton boss. “They gave us good energy and life and did themselves no harm.”
Players will now get a few days off to recharge and rest before returning to the training ground on Saturday to start preparing for an away game at Fleetwood on Tuesday.
“I think the players need it,” Evatt said. “There have been a lot of games and a lot of injuries, so the same players have had to play quite a lot.
“Mentally, to be able to switch off will be quite important to prepare for the game next Tuesday.”
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